Church Going

Nothing could contrast more sharply with “Still Falls the Rain” than “Church Going.”  They describe two opposite responses to the chaos and destruction of World War 2: a return to faith, and the re-embracing of Christianity, versus a loss of faith, and abandonment of Christianity.  Of course, “Church Going” doesn’t explicitly mention the war, but post-War atheism, and search for meaning in post-Christian world, underlines all of Larkin’s work, at least all that I’ve read.  This poem is extremely depressing, and in general, I find his poems depressing.  They’re bleak, at least.  To me at least, the image of a man, fallen away from the faith, or maybe never having practiced it, visiting a church, not to attend services, but simply to look around, touch the Bible and the altar, is extremely sad.  He doesn’t believe in God, or at least faith isn’t particularly important to him, but he’s still looking for meaning in this church, and doesn’t find it.  It’s heartbreaking.

I find particularly interesting the last stanza, which reflects on the fact that religious institutions will always exist, and have a place in society, if only because people need some sort of meaning and feeling of purpose, in what’s otherwise a depressing and cruel world – “that much will never be obsolete.”  The speaker describes the church as “serious,” and I’m wondering what he means by that.  (“A serious house on serious earth it is, in whose blent air all our compulsions meet, are recognised, and robed as destinies.”)  Does “serious” here mean strict?  Full of emphasis on death?  Or maybe meeting a fundamental human need?  Perhaps the presence of dead people makes it serious, since death is no laughing matter, as he says in the last line, “If only that so many dead lie round.”  The inevitable reality of death, maybe, connects people to religion and compels them to go to church, if only because of funerals and such.  Major life events, like baptisms, weddings, and funerals, bring most people in to church, even if that’s the only time they go, as he says, “only in separation – marriage, and birth, and death.”

If I were in a weepy mood, this poem would probably make me cry, but right now, I just sigh and grimace.  On to some more cheerful reading.  :)

Still Falls the Rain

Reading “Still Falls the Rain” on the same day as “Church Going” was interesting, because they contrast so sharply with each other.  “Still Falls the Rain” oozes religion and piety, and seems to recommend turning to Christianity for solace and salvation during World War 2, whereas “Church Going” talks about the end of religion and Christianity’s decline in Britain in the twentieth century, especially after World War 2.  I’ll discuss “Church Going” in another post.

I was struck by the comparison of the British victims of the Nazi bombing to Jesus on the cross.  I’ve seen this analogy in a lot of World War 2 literature – what sticks out particularly for me is Night, by Elie Wiesel, where he describes the hanging of a little boy, and says, “There is God, hanging there on that tree.”  Given that Wiesel is Jewish and not Christian, I’ve always been intrigued by him making that comparison.  But back to “Still Falls the Rain.”  When the author talks about the rain being black – is it acid rain, or somehow a fallout from the fire bombs?  Or is it metaphorical?  I’m not sure what it means.  Also, what does it mean, “the pulse of the heart that is changed to the hammer-beat in Potter’s Field?”  Is it talking about a person who’s been buried alive, and whose heart is still beating?  Or is it about soldiers?  I don’t know what to make of the “hammer-beat.”

Another line that was confusing comes near the end: “Christ’s blood…flows from the Brow we nailed upon the tree deep to the dying, to the thirsting heart that holds the fires of the world.”  Is the one who “holds the fires of the world” the devil, since Hell is traditionally thought of as a pit of fire?  Why, and how, is he thirsty?  Thirsty because he’s deprived of water, or because he secretly wants a connection with God?  Or is the fire something else, like the Holy Spirit, which came to the Apostles in tongues of fire?  Is the “thirsting heart” the heart of humanity, and their “thirst” for a relationship with God?  I’m not sure.  This is a very emotional poem, very traditionally Christian, kind of the opposite of Larkin’s.  The images of the tortured bear and the crucified man (Jesus) are particularly evocative for me.

Still Falls The Rain= Sadness

Still Falls the Rain was a very harrowing poem in my mind. As it refers to the horrors and pain of WWII in its subject matter, its symbolism and biblical allusions only highlight the sorrows of war. Edith Sitwell chose some of the more graven images of the Bible, to group together with the dark times of the period. I guess a Ruth-Boaz love affair or Abraham's son being born allusion wouldn't be appropriate when bombs are destroying the country. In my reading and analysis of it I found myself trying to go through the many biblical references and attempt to tie it within the events of the blitzkrieg of England at the time.

Right off the bat, the metaphor of water as rain differs from its original purpose. I know rain is depressing, as evidenced in Delaware where it rains all the time, but it does provide sustenance for plants and makes the ol' grass green. However, Sitwell refers to it as 'Dark as the world of man, black as our loss.' Ouch. Talk about morbid. When looking at it throughout the poem as a repetitive phrase it reminds us of sin and it continues to fall throughout each of the biblical allusion she refers to.



Many biblical allusions are referenced throughout the poem. My church background definitely came in handy when reading it or else I would have had no clue. The cross and crucifixion account remains the most dominant one among them. The Potter's field which Judas bought after betraying Jesus is referred to as the field of blood. Jesus crucifixion and hanging on the cross reminds us of a painful sacrifice for all people but it seems within the context of the war and fighting the death seems almost in vain. .



Dives and Lazarus are two juxtaposing lives within Jesus' parable. One being a rich man who lived lavishly but burns in hell after not truly knowing God, and Lazarus who lived a sinful earthly life but sits in Heaven later on. In both accounts, Sitwell asks for mercy. Greed is the main sin of Cain who had avarice in his heart and withheld his sacrifice to God and killed his brother in jealousy. When trying to tie that in with the life of war, people are fighting with greed, jealousy, and many of the deadly sins in their hearts.



Sitwell ends on a hopeful note as she continues with the crucifixion imagery, although she loses me a bit with what seems is an Old English jump. “Still do I love, still shed my innocent light, my Blood, for thee.” Though the rain [reign]of sin is still destroying Europe with the war, Sitwell has Christ recites these lines of hope. I found it paralleling the lives being lost within the darkness of war. As Jesus came to serve sinners, so lives are being used in the service of war and defense of one's country. Reminds me of this awesome meme. Don't mess with JC

Guernica, 1937, Picasso

The Blitz

Easter, 1916, posted for Erica

When I was first reading Yeat’s poem “East 1916” I felt like the speaker was giving me a tour around their surroundings in order to experience what they were seeing. Last time I read a poem like this was “Trivia, or the Art of Walking the Streets of London” by Gay. Gay created a speaker to tell the reader what they were seeing as they were walking the London streets. For instance, the speaker described what commodities were sold on each particular day giving me a clear picture of what they were seeing. In Yeat’s poem, he is putting himself as an observer in the poem. Instead of concentrating on the commodities being sold, Yeats descrives the faces of the people around him. In particular, these faces are of the people who want to change the future of Ireland. I was not aware of what was going on in Ireland around that time so I did some research. The poem was written about the Easter Rising in Ireland in 1916. Moreover, Great Britain had control over Ireland, but wanted to rebel against Britain with the help of their enemy Germany. Instead the British became aware of this rebellion and stopped it and executed many men. There were many negative feelings towards Britain around this time as you could all imagine. I figure that Yeats wrote this poem to inspire the young generation to make a change and stand up against the British. Anyways, the poem goes on and Yeats tries to relate to these ordinary people described in the poem. Most of them work for the higher class, tending to the wealthy. Yeats wants these people to open the eyes of Ireland from the tragedy that had occured around that time. The next stanza kind of loses me. Yeats talks about a woman, I am not sure of who in particular. Yeat’s opinion of the woman does not seem very positive. He refers to her as ignorant, and argumentative. I could only assume he is talking about a woman who is wealthy or identified as British due to the harsh feelings expressed in the poem. Then Yeats describes two men which I am still lost on who their identity is. However, the last man he speaks of I kind of had an idea of their identity. “To some who are near my heart” suggests that this man was close to someone he loved, or maybe his lover’s spouse? It is also suggested that he was part of the Easter rising and charged for some kind of crime. Like the other people mentioned before, Yeat’s tone suggests that he did not think so highly of them. Towards the end of the poem, Yeats mentions a stone symbolizing something that is hard. The heart of Ireland might now be stone by hopefully being taken over by the revolutioners. There were so many deaths around this rising, but Yeats suggests to the reader that only God can stop them. The whole point of the poem was to change the minds of the people around that time or to wake them up to the real issue that was at hand. I think Yeats did just that.

Sitwell “Still Falls the Rain”

“Still Falls the Rain” by Edith Sitwell contains vivid imagery that is rather depressing but at the end it leaves you with a positive outlook.  The poem is composed of seven stanzas, with the first six starting with the line “Still falls the rain—”.  However the seventh stanza does not start with that line which I think is a crucial aspect of the poem.  The rain can be thought of as the bombs from the air raids the German used against the British during WWII.  The whole poem has a religious undertone that’s slowly builds up to the end, where the last stanza gives the reader from an escape from the rain / bombs that has been in every other stanza.  The last stanza beings with “Then sounds the voice of One who was like the heart of man / Was once a child who among beasts was lain —”, which is a nice break from all of the imagery of war and suffering.  The “One” is Jesus, which can be told from the capital O, and it is him that is heard as opposed to the awful sounds of the bombs or the air raid sirens. Sitwell is saying that Jesus was once an innocent baby that was born among all of the sinners who are these “beasts” and he was send down from heaven to die for their sins.  She is also saying that just like Jesus everyone was also innocent, because everyone was once a child, but the beasts can influence and change a person.  However the last line of the poem offers wraps up that last stanza by giving the reader some hope amidst all of the gloom in the rest of the poem.  The last line shows that Jesus still will die for out sins in order to make the world a better place.

One line of the poem I did not understand was in the first stanza, “Blind as the nineteen hundred and forty nails / Upon the Cross”.  I am confused of where Sitwell comes up with the number nineteen hundred and forty.  I might be missing something because I was considering it the year that the poem was written, but the Norton says it was written in 1942.  I know the cross that Sitwell is walking about is the cross that Jesus was crucified on but it almost always has three nails in it, one for each wrist and one for the feet.  I also do not know why Sitwell used the simile blind to describe the nails in the cross either.  Perhaps it is because bombs that the Germans were dropping were blindly being dropped onto innocent civilians and that Jesus was innocent but he died for out sins, just like the civilians died.

-Daniel Pietaro